A Fifth Dimension:Manual of Style (articles)
This Manual of Style gives a guideline for styles to use in writing articles. This will apply to all articles across the board, however, some articles' layout will vary. (see the corresponding section below) Introductions At the beginning of every article, the title or main emphasis of that article should appear in bold in the first line. This may seem redundant, as the article title is already listed, but it is useful to quickly emphasize the article's subject for the reader. :Sam Conrad was an astronaut that found himself stranded on an alien planet, far from his home on Earth. Remember to also use italicized text when necessary. See Manual of Style (titles) or the Italicization section below for further information. :The ''Lady Anne'' was the ship taken by Eileen and Allan Ransome for their two-week cruise to England. If the subject of the article has more than one name, each new form of the name should be in bold on its first appearance. :The Devil, also known as Cadwallader or Pip or The Howling Man... In most cases, it is useful to establish context in the first line or two of the article. :In black magic, a grimoire was a book of spells used for various nefarious purposes, such as placing living beings in a state of suspended animation. Alternate worlds and timelines Sometimes, The Twilight Zone stories take place in alternate timelines. If this is the case, it may be helpful to include a line stating so immediately following the introduction. This can easily be done using the template. ::*Example: This story occurs in an alternate timeline. Although The Twilight Zone episodes usually occupy their own "space" without relation to other episodes, the majority can be considered compatible within the same timeline. This is to say that one story does not totally eliminate the possibility of most other stories from occurring before or after itself. However, certain stories, like or , are clear deviations from the timelines of or as the former depict worlds that appear to end during the 1960's, while the latter episodes clearly occur beyond that time. Thus, these contradictory stories can be said to be of alternate timelines. *''See Time in the Twilight Zone for more details.'' Headlines and sections To create a new in an article, surround the text with two or more (equal signs). Two equal signs will establish the basic heading line, including a horizontal bar underneath to separate the sections, and each additional pair of equal signs will result in a smaller font size for subsequent headings. When you have the header, there is no blank line needed beneath the header to separate the lines by spacing. The wiki engine will automatically create a table of contents based on the headers in an article. (for alternatives, see: and Wikipedia:Help Section) With regard to headers, capitilization rules differ slightly. In all cases, you should capitalize the first word and all proper nouns of the header, and leave all other words lowercase. The only time that this does not apply is in episode and movie articles. These pages have their own peculiar format with all of the words capitalized. In addition, all words should be spelled out and not use numerals (such as rather than "II" or "2''") except when a proper title (such as ). Avoid using links in headers. Depending on the browser's default settings, some users may not be able to see the links properly. It is much more useful to place the appropriate link in the first sentence after the header. Background sections Aside from the main summary of the article's subject, there may be additional details that should be included. This can include—even in "in-universe" articles like character pages— things like technical information, commentaries, trivia, and unusual or contested points of information. These topics should be contained in a separate section, named: : Background information In some articles, however, the content of the "Background information" section has been divided up into separate specific sections. See: Guide to Layout. "See also" sections Informational references to related articles that have not been linked to from free links in the article itself are best handled by a "see also" link. :'See also:' Cliffordville, Willoughby It might be better for organization's sake, though, if you can use a "See also" section header to list the links in a more explicit fashion as a section of the article: : See also :* Anne Marie Henderson :* Millicent Barnes If an article consists of several sections and a "see also" refers to the entire article, making it a separate section helps emphasize that the links refer to the entire article, rather than simply the last section alone. Other article styles Some articles have specific sets of style rules: Characters and actors pages * Comics and magazines * Other styles There are undoubtedly styles that this tutorial does not cover. Although we try to keep this article simple, consider '''adding a new section' to help new (and old!) readers out in creating styles for articles. Category:A Fifth Dimension Guidelines